Bug 3340 - clarify "original" and "mode" in scp(1) manpage
Summary: clarify "original" and "mode" in scp(1) manpage
Status: CLOSED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Portable OpenSSH
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Documentation (show other bugs)
Version: 8.6p1
Hardware: Other All
: P5 normal
Assignee: Assigned to nobody
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: V_8_8
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Reported: 2021-08-15 04:09 AEST by Christoph Anton Mitterer
Modified: 2022-02-25 13:57 AEDT (History)
2 users (show)

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Description Christoph Anton Mitterer 2021-08-15 04:09:32 AEST
Hey.

In that manpage, the -p option uses the term "original", but it's not directly clear, whether this means the source file or the (original) destination files (which I think it rather indicates).

It seems however that it's the source file that's meant, so I guess that would be a clearer wording.


Also "modes" (in -p and -P above) might be ambiguous:
E.g. POSIX standard uses the definition:
>File Mode
>An object containing the file mode bits and some information
>about the file type of a file.

But here only the file mode bits are meant.

Perhaps something like "permission mode" or maybe the above "file mode bits" might be better? And maybe adding that any ACLs wouldn't be preserved.


Cheers,
Chris.
Comment 1 Darren Tucker 2021-09-10 17:14:07 AEST
Fixed, thanks.  It now says:

-P port
       Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host.  Note that
       this option is written with a capital `P', because -p is already
       reserved for preserving the times and mode bits of the file.

-p     Preserves modification times, access times, and file mode bits
       from the source file.
Comment 2 Christoph Anton Mitterer 2021-09-11 00:38:06 AEST
Thanks :-)
Comment 3 Damien Miller 2022-02-25 13:57:16 AEDT
closing bugs resolved before openssh-8.9